Faker gets benched, comes back with a pentakill

The 2015 season of League of Legends officially kicked off last night with a match featuring the best player in the game.

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, nicknamed “god” for his incredible talent, and his team SK Telecom T1 opened the LoL Champions Korea (LCK) season against the Yu “Ggoong” Byeong-jun-led NaJin e-mFire.

With many of Korea’s top talents wooed away from that country by Chinese money, Lee stands as one of the last superstars remaining in League of Legends’ toughest region. But it was an odd day for the player, to say the least.

In the span of a three-game series, Lee saw himself lose a map with a first-picked mid lane champion, get benched, and then return to the lineup to win the match with a pentakill.

“God,” it seems, needed a little wake up call to get going.

(Sorry, this embed was not found.)On the first map, SK Telecom T1 blind-picked immobile mid laner Xerath, and while Lee played a solid game in lane, his foe Yu carried the match later in the game, posting a 13/1/7 on his signature champion Zed.

That led to SK Telecom coach Kim “KkOma” Jeong-yun to bring in the backup, Lee “Easyhoon” Ji-hoon. During preseason, Easyhoon showcased play that could have made him a starter on most of the other teams in the league. SK Telecom retained his services, it seems, for days like this one, when you want to make sure your superstar doesn’t go on tilt. He entered the game in place of Faker and posted a 6/0/8 KDA on Xerath as SK Telecom stormed back in the series.

Kim would then turn back to his superstar player, and was rewarded for it. Faker has never lost a match on LeBlanc and did not disappoint, putting up a 10/2/6 KDA line and the pentakill to secure the match.

Benching the best player in the world, even if he perhaps needs a break to collect himself, is certainly a tough decision to make. But today, apparently, it was the right one.